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With the world we live in today becoming so reliant on online outlets, businesses need to make the most of their presence on social media. However, always remember to be careful not to misrepresent your image while using those social platforms. Read on for some tips to avoid making the worst social media mistakes.

Many social media pages are built to engage with people and build a decent depiction of your company, product or name. While many have wildly successful media operations set up, others have failed for various reasons.

We’ve seen it time and time again.

Avoid that misconception by reading just how a blunder can influence your media pages, and the most common mistakes that you can avoid.

Top Social Media Mistakes you Shouldn’t Make

Too many words. Stick to your point. Followers aren’t reading your feed to spend five minutes scrolling down a post with too many commas.

Using words you don’t understand.DiGiorno’s mistakenly used a trending hashtag to their marketing advantage on Twitter in 2014 to promote their pizza. #WhyIStayed was trending in opposition to domestic violence, and DiGiorno’s got quite the reprimand from its misuse.

Not keeping a focus. Just as your word count should be limited, be sure to keep the concentration on your topic.

Over-posting. Once you find your rhythm of posting, stick to it, if it is working well with your audience. Over-doing the frequency of updates could negatively impact your strategy.

Being a ‘Debby Downer’. Positivity spread from your social media manager is essential to the continued support of your company, and just good customer service.

A shortage of media. Balance the ratio between images, video content and plain text. You need to keep people engaged while reading your feed, but not overwhelmed with too much text.

Bringing in politics. If it doesn’t support the nature of your company, or bring guaranteed positive responses from your followers, then it isn’t worth the risk.

Not engaging in conversations. You’re on social media for a purpose. How can that purpose be achieved without maximizing opportunities to use your expertise? Communicate with the people in your network.

Pay attention to the responses from the users you are trying to engage with and use them to restructure your strategy, if needed. They will be your best source in the changing market.

Deleting comments that are inconvenient. If the comments are inappropriate or hinder your strategy or image as a company, by all means you withhold the right to remove them.

If the comments are not rightfully lewd, and the operator of the media page just doesn’t want to deal with the ‘hassle’ of handling the situation, then you have a problem.

Your presence on social media is contingent on responses you give to your followers, or any commentor. Don’t let an honest answer hurt your name; let your honesty speak for your reliability and morality.

Posting controversial topics. Why bother? Everyone is a heckler on social media. It’s unavoidable, but it is somewhat controllable.

Any hot topic is likely to get publicity over media, but if it is irrelevant to your intention and purpose of being on social media then avoid it. We all know what happened with Adam Goodes; why contribute where it may not be needed?

Lack of context. It doesn’t matter what you say if the context of what you’re saying isn’t connected in an appropriate way. Context is key. Isn’t it?

Lack of content.Amnesty International Australia used Tinder to launch a campaign to raise awareness for women in forced marriages. As a sensitive topic, presenting their ideas without an effective strategy in place would be useless.

In the case of Amnesty International, thousands of people clicked the link provided; their mission was successful due to the compelling content successfully integrated in their advertisement.

Not staying informed. With technology changing just as fast as world events happening, this is essential to executing a successful social media strategy.

Just as Nike had to revoke a t-shirt design after its significance shifted. The t-shirt started as a competitive baseball rivalry between New York and Boston, and quickly changed to an image that misrepresented the horrific scene in Boston in April 2013.

Nike had to react quickly. Once the directive dialogue over social media began, they immediately removed all t-shirts from their shelves.

No filters. We’re not talking about Instagram filters here but with regard to a chain of command.

How could such an inappropriate ad, which completely misconveys an acceptable public opinion on rape culture, pass through several stages of approval?

Dozens of people had to have seen this advertisement before it was released; Bloomingdale’s is no small business. Once it was published, the backlash began.

You can avoid this by refining your editing process: checks and balances.

Generating automated responses. This can backfire, and backfire quickly. In addition to installing checkpoints for potential media content, ensure that if you are using an automated response system always be aware of what is posted.

Forgetting to filter the extra noise. Stick to your strategy and your purpose of using social media services and get rid of the distractions. This will help with your time management in addition to increasing efficiency.

Rid your news feed and/or Twitter feed of pointless conversations. Fill those spaces with constructive outlets that will be beneficial to you, and will make your sites easier to manage.

Final Thoughts

Some mistakes are excusable, while others take a lot of time and money to fix. Take caution in what you post and remember to use the resources easily available to you. Including getting a second opinion on content, and making sure you stay caught up with current events.

Overall, social media services should hold the capability of making you more successful if used properly. Take advantage of the opportunities it provides and don’t waste time making mindless errors that are avoidable.